... they tried to help the Democrat Hubert Humphrey in his race against Republican Richard Nixon. The Democrat demurred saying their "good wishes" were "more than enough." Incidentally, it later came out that the Republican in the same election colluded with a different foreign power (South Vietnam) to prolong a war to help him win an election; as a result several thousand American soldiers died needlessly.

Dobrynin subtly raised the issue of Humphrey’s campaign finances during a discussion of the election, but the vice president deflected the issue. “Humphrey, I must say,” Dobrynin wrote, “was not only a very intelligent but also a very clever man. He knew at once what was going on.” Humphrey told Dobrynin that “it was more than enough for him to have Moscow’s good wishes which he highly appreciated.”